The Secret Mentor

After Sombras return, life was pretty much the same as before. Every few days Twilight would once again be found in the Everfree forest training her spells. And as usual Sombra would be right next to her. Over these last few months she had learned a lot of new very difficult spells. One spell she particularly liked was a fire spell combined with a wind spell. Basically she could envelop herself in a ball of fire and then affect the air around herself causing a mini fire tornado. Sombra was very proud to call Twilight his daughter. Not once had he seen a unicorn learn to combine such spells so quickly.

Time seemed to move rather quickly for Twilight. Apart from her training, she had a few days that were very eventful. A very exciting day was probably when Trixie came back to challenge Twilight to a dual. At that day Twilight was very tempted to use the magic her new father had taught her, but Sombra convinced her otherwise. But without a doubt the most exciting day was when Twilight turned into an alicorn. No ever saw that coming, not even Sombra.

The first few days Twilight was very nervous, she still could not believe this was really happening. Not to mention she was having some trouble adjusting to her new wings. But after a few hours of practice she managed to learn the basics of flight.

Right now Twilight was flying to see her brother. She was crowned a princess about an hour ago. She would not forget her friends smiling faces. Sadly it might be the last time she saw them smiling. While flying, she remembered her talk with Sombra.

A few days earlier

Twilight was still in Ponyville. She would be headed to Canterlot soon to discuss the process of her coronation. She was in her room with Sombra.

Twilight asked nervously: “What do you mean “it’s time”?”

“I mean it’s time to finally put my plan into motion. You will be coroneted as a princess in a few days, it’s the perfect time to strike. They will not suspect a thing and all three of the princesses will there at that moment. Meaning we will be able to take them all out in one day. My shadow army is ready. I have restored my former power. The question now is, what will you do Twilight? Will you be as loyal as you promised me, or will you join them and betray me?”

“Of course I will be by your side, father! There is no other way I would have it.”

Sombra smiled: “Well then meet me at the edge of Canterlot after you’ve done your part of the plan. After that I will set the rest of my plan in motion. First you will take out your brother, so the royal guard is a lot weaker without its captain, then I shall start the attack on the city. And finally you will meet me outside the city where we will both face the princesses.”

Twilight nodded: “Alright, father. I will see you in few days then.”

Sombra nodded and with a flash he was gone.

Twilight remained sitting still on her bead. Even though this meant very much for her father, she still had a few doubts about this. Could she really betray her friends and family? Could she really kill all of them?

Twilight shook her head and got up. Of course she could! Why was she even thinking about this? No matter, she had to prepare for her coronation in a few days, and go through her father’s plan in her head again.

Present day

Shining Armor was in his room in the royal palace. His room was located at the very top of one of the towers. The room was quite large and had a balcony. Shining Armor was preparing to leave soon. He would have loved to stay and celebrate, but his duty in the Crystal Empire could not wait.

Suddenly he heard a somepony land on his balcony. He turned around to see his sister Twilight Sparkle.

An immediate smile appeared on his face: “Twily! Hey, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with your friends celebrating?”

She slowly walked into the room and, with a smile of her own, said: “Can’t I visit my BBBFF for no apparent reason?”

Shining approached his sister and they shared a brief hug. They had seen each other maybe an hour ago, but Shining was still thrilled to see his sister.

After they ended the hug Shining answered: “Of course you can Twily! But really why did you come here? It’s not like you to just drop in without having it planned out already.”

“Guess I just wanted to see you before you left. We rarely get to see each other.”

Twilight started walking towards the balcony, but stopped midway.

She turned around and asked her brother: “Hey, Shining, does the Sun look different to you? It seems kind of odd today. ”

Shining Armor asked: “What do you mean?”

“Come and take a look, Shining.”

The white unicorn walked past Twilight and was now standing outside on the balcony. He looked directly at the Sun. Nothing of the Sun seemed odd to him in any way.

“I don’t see the problem, Twily. What did you see?”

While Shining was standing out on the balcony, Twilight started to concentrate on her magic. In a few seconds there was a fireball in front of her. This was it; there was no turning back if she did it. She would never be forgiven; everypony would hate her for what she had done. She threw the fire ball at Shining.

He heard something from behind him and turned around: “Wha…”

But it was too late. The fire ball was already too close for him to react properly. The ball hit him in the chest with such a strong blow that he flew a few feet back. Shining hit the railing of the balcony, but he did not fall off. He could not stand up because of the pain in his chest. The white unicorn looked at his sister, who had walked a lot closer to him.

He could barely speak: “Twi… why?”

Twilights face held no emotion, she did not care for Shining anymore. He would stop her father’s plan or even worse kill him. She looked in his eyes, for a second she felt sorry him, she wanted to ask for forgiveness, but that feeling went away as soon as it came. There was no turning back now, she started this and she had to finish this.

Shining could feel himself getting wrapped in a magical field. Twilight started levitate her brother a feet above the ground. Then she slowly started to move him over the edge of the balcony. Shining was now levitating a few hundred feet above the ground. If Twilight let go of her magic, there was no way he could survive that fall.

Twilight her looked her brother in the eyes and said: “I’m sorry Shining. But there is no other way; I have to take you out.”

Before he could respond, Twilight let go of her magical grip. She didn’t close her eyes, instead she watched as her brother very quickly got closer to the ground. It turns out she let go of her grip at the precisely right moment. Spike was seemingly at the wrong place at the wrong time.

He heard something from above and looked up. The only thing he got to say was: “Wha-…”

Before Shining reached the ground, Twilight closed her eyes and turned around. All she could hear was a slight bump noise, as if a small rock had hit the ground. She didn’t need to look to know that they were dead.

Silently she said to herself: “Two birds with one stone.”

With her eyes still closed she heard a quiet voice say: “Twi…light… What have you done?”

Twilights eyes snapped open immediately. There was a pony standing in the room. Not just any pony, it was Cadence. She had walked in right when Twilight released her magical grip and allowed Shining to fall to his death. Tears were streaming down her face, her mouth was open as if trying to say something, but no words came out. Cadence was so shocked she couldn’t find the words to express herself.

Twilight had to think fast, she needed an escape route quickly. She quickly jumped over the railing and, while falling, teleported further away. The unicorn flew as fast as she could.

While flying, she heard her father’s voice: “Well done, Twilight. You managed to get your brother and that little dragon as well.”

“Where are you, father? Are you ready?”

“I am at the edge of the city, the invade has already begun. My army is storming the city. We will most likely get the princesses attention soon so you better get over here quickly.”

“I will be there shortly, but there might be a problem. Cadence saw me killing Shining Armor and she can get really dangerous when she’s emotional.”

“Don’t worry about that, we will take care of her either way.”

A few minutes later

Sombra's shadow army was invading the city. The royal guard could not hold them back. Princess Celestia knew who was behind this attack just by looking at the shadow warriors. She did not know when or how did he return, but that was not important right now. She needed to make sure that her citizens were safe.

She already found Shining Armor dead, and Cadence, who was crying and kept telling her that it was Twilight who had killed her husband. Celestia could not believe it, there has to be a different explanation, Twilight could never do such a thing. But Celestia could not think about that now, she needed to protect the city. She looked up and saw her sister Luna approaching.

Luna landed next to Celestia and said: “It is Sombra without a doubt, but I could not locate him. The royal guard is barely

holding up against this attack. We must act now sister!”

“Where are Twilights friends? We will need them.”

“We’re right here, princess!” called out Rainbow Dash. They were all running towards the princesses.

“What is going on here?” asked Applejack.

Celestia answered: “Sombra and his army are invading the city. I don’t know how he came back, but we must stop him!”

“Well then what are we waiting for? Let’s go and show Sombra whose boss!”

Celestia nodded: “Let’s go, we shall banish Sombra for good this time!”

With that they both flew into the air and went straight to the fight, the rest of the ponies followed them. They saw the royal guard slowly losing the fight to the shadow warriors. But once they got closer to them, the shadow warriors stopped attacking. They formed together into a dark mist and left to the edge of the city.

They were surprised to see this. Celestia and Luna looked at each other.

Luna asked: “Do you think we should follow them?”

Celestia answered: “If we don’t, they will come back eventually. It might be a trap, but we don’t really have a choice at his point.”

“Where is Twilight? And where is Cadence?”

“I am here,” Cadence landed right behind them. There were still tears in her eyes, but she looked very angry and determined.

“I will make Sombra pay for what he has done!” She launched herself into the air and flew after the dark mist. Celestia and

Luna didn’t say anything, they just followed and so did Twilights friends.

After a few minutes they were at the edge of town. The mist or Sombra were still nowhere to be seen. But soon a similar mist appeared behind a tree. The mist slowly formed itself into King Sombra in front of them.

He had a huge grin on his face: “Ahhh, it’s nice to see all of you again.”

Celestia asked very angrily: “What do want Sombra?! Why are you doing this?!”

“I merely want to be the king. Is that so much to ask? And you three are the only ones still standing in my way to achieve that.”

“Hey, what about us?!” asked Rainbow Dash slightly annoyed.

“There are four of us now, Sombra!” said Luna.

Sombra chuckled and said: “Oh really now?”

They all heard someone approaching through the air. The princesses saw that it was Twilight. She landed in the middle of Sombra and the princesses. For a few moments she just stood there.

The princesses and Twilights friends were very confused by this.

Celestia finally broke the silence: “Twilight? What is going on?”

Twilight said nothing, instead Sombra spoke: “I am afraid Twilight is on my side, Celestia.”

Cadence then spoke with a shaky voice: “Twilight… was it rea.. really you… that…”

Again she did not answer; she merely nodded not even looking at Cadence. This made Cadence cry again.

By this time the royal guards had already gathered behind the princesses and element bearers. At that moment Sombra called his shadow army, they came out as a dark mist from the shadows. Soon there were the same shadow warriors standing behind Sombra.

Sombra spoke in a calm voice: “Ah, but it seems that my student doesn’t know which side to take in the end.”

After a brief pause he continued: “Make your choice, Twilight. We are all waiting.”

Princess Celestia interfered: “Twilight, please! This isn’t who you are! Please don’t do this!”

Twilight closed her eyes for a brief moment to think.

But then Rainbow Dash quickly interfered her thoughts: “Twilight, what the hell? What are you doing, egghead!?”

Again that nickname. Twilight hated that nickname; she hated everyone who called her like that.

She turned to Rainbow Dash and practically screamed: “Don’t call me egghead!”

While screaming she stomped the ground in anger with her front hoofs. What this did was send a blast wave of energy in the direction of Rainbow Dash. Rainbow wasn’t expecting this; the wave blew her off of her hooves and made her fall on her back a few feet away. Twilight just stood there staring very angrily at the princesses and the element bearers.

Celestia then glared at Sombra and shouted: “You monster! Look at what you turned her into! I will make you pay!”

She concentrated her magic and her horn was surrounded in her usual gold aura. Celestia blasted a solar beam at Sombra. But Sombra did not even move. At the right time Twilight appeared in front of Sombra and put a barrier to protect both of them. The solar beam hit the barrier, but did not penetrate it; it wasn’t powerful enough to do so.

Celestia stopped firing and asked in a surprised voice: “Twilight, are you really siding with him? Will you truly betray us?”

Instead of answering Twilight very quickly made a fire ball in front herself and threw it at Celestia. Celestia was quick enough to jump to the side, but she had forgotten about the ponies behind her. The fire ball flew directly at the elements. Rainbow Dash was getting up, she still hadn’t recovered from that blow. When she looked up, she saw the fire ball headed towards her, but because of the blow earlier she couldn’t react properly. The spell hit her right in the face, she flew back again and landed on her back. She was unconscious, and no one believed that she could have survived such an attack.

Fluttershy saw this and collapsed onto the ground, and started sobbing loudly. Everypony of Twilights former friends were crying now. They gathered around Fluttershy to try and calm her down a bit.

All of the princesses then looked at Sombra. It was clear they were ready to attack him.

Sombra knew this and commanded his army: “Attack!”

Right after that, the royal guard and the shadow warriors started their fight, similar like the one in the city. In the middle of this there were five ponies simply staring down one another.

Celestia commanded: “Do not hurt Twilight. Aim everything you have on Sombra.”

Both of the princesses nodded. This just made Twilight smile; this would be easier than she thought.

All of the princesses started to channel energy in their horns. All of them then blasted a beam of energy at Sombra. He was able to teleport right behind them, the beam hit nothing. The princesses quickly turned around, but they forgot that Twilight was now behind them. This gave Twilight the perfect opportunity to attack. She formed an icy spike the size of a filly, and threw it Cadence. Cadence heard something approaching from behind so she tried to jump to the side. But she was a bit too late. The spike managed to impale her back leg. She landed on the ground and screamed in pain.

Celestia and Luna both took notice of this and wanted to rush to Cadence. But they were interrupted by a fire ball headed towards them. This time it was casted by Sombra. Luna put up a shield to protect them, but the shield was destroyed once the ball hit it.

Cadence was incapacitated and they were both now surrounded by Sombra and Twilight. Still they would not attack Twilight; their main target was still Sombra. So they both again started to attack Sombra. This time Celestia threw a fire ball while Luna managed to form an ice spike similar to the one Twilight had casted earlier. Sombra was ready for this attack, he surrounded himself in a barrier and blocked the attacks.

The attack was again made by Twilight. This time she fired a beam of black energy from her horn. Luna was ready for an attack and put up a shield. However once the beam reached the shield it didn’t collide with it, instead the beam went straight through it. Neither of the princesses expected this, Luna was hit in the chest with this powerful beam. Once the beam hit her she screamed in pain and the shield was dropped. Luna fell to ground and was very heavily injured. Celestia could see that she was bleeding from her chest.

Celestia now glared at Twilight. This was not the same Twilight she had known for many years. This was a monster Sombra had created and if she doesn’t take her out, Equestria will be doomed. She had to stop Twilight and Sombra.

This time Celestia concentrated her magic towards Twilight. Her eyes turned white and her horn glowed with a very bright gold aura. She blasted a solar beam at Twilight. This beam was so powerful that it could kill Twilight if it hit her. But Twilight wasn’t moving, she stood perfectly still. Once the beam reached her, Twilight was knocked back and laying on the ground.

Celestia closed her eyes and whispered: “Forgive, my student.”

Because of this she did not notice that Twilights body was slowly disappearing. Twilight had created a clone of herself similar to the one when she was fighting the hydra in the Everfree. When the body was gone, Twilight appeared behind Celestia and was levitating a heavy bolder over Celestia. She dropped the bolder. Celestia heard something, but it was too late, the bolder landed on her back breaking her spine and pinning her down unable to fight anymore.

Twilight walked closer to the princesses who were lying on the ground. Cadence tried to move or use her magic, but because of the severe pain in her leg she wasn’t able to concentrate on any spells. Luna was barely alive because of the blast to her chest. She was coughing blood every few seconds. And to Twilights surprise, Celestia was still alive.

Twilight lifted the boulder off of Celestia. Then she lifted all of the princesses so that they were right in front of her. Cadence was the most alive out of them.

She asked them: “Are you ready to give up?”

Cadence was the only one who answered: “Never! We will never surrender!”

Twilight smiled and said: “Too bad.”

She then concentrated her magic on all of their necks. All of them could feel that. With a loud crack their necks broke and they were hanging in midair lifeless. Twilight let them go and they fell to the ground. The once great rulers of the country were now dead.

Twilight looked at her father. He looked very pleased; he had that same smile he always had when things went the way as planned.

Sombra walked closer to Twilight and said: “You did great, Twilight. We won… you won. You showed me that I can trust you no matter what. I am proud to call you my daughter.”

Twilight smiled and hugged her father: “Thank you, father.”

When they released each other Sombra could see that his army had killed almost every royal guard. There were a few that were still alive. They had surrendered the moment they saw their princesses die before their very eyes.

The purple unicorn heard a familiar voice. A familiar sobbing to be exact. She looked behind her and saw her friends all together sitting around Fluttershy, trying to comfort her as best as they could. Every one of them was crying. They looked at Twilight with fear in their eyes.

Sombra then spoke: “And what do you plan to do with them?”

“I’m not sure, father.”

She then went closer to them. Pinkie Pie covered her eyes. She was too afraid to even look at Twilight. Rarity was still trying to comfort Fluttershy by repeating words like “everything will be fine”. Applejack looked Twilight straight in the eye. She tried to look tough, but failed; Twilight could the fear in her eyes.

Twilight spoke quietly: “You are either with me or against me. Which will it be?”

Applejack was the only one who spoke: “You think we will just forgive you and forget what you did today? No. We will never be with you,” her voice held no anger, no sadness, it was completely emotionless.

Twilight sighed and said: “Fine, have it your way.”

She turned around and walked to one of the shadow warriors and whispered something to him.

The purple unicorn then turned to her friends and said: “Because of our earlier friendship, I will not kill you, but you will be locked up the dungeons for the rest of your lives. I am your new princess and you better remember that.”

Twilight walked next to her father. He was still smiling. They both saw the shadow army in front of them. They had done it, she and her father could rule now together. Looking back at everything, she was happy of the choices she made, for they all led her to this moment.

She said to herself: “Yes, everything’s going to be just fine.”